


More valuable than gold and blood and real friendship

by likeamigraine (eatintoothpaste)



Category: Othello - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen, silver tongued character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-27
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-22 14:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/610628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eatintoothpaste/pseuds/likeamigraine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iago has been told that he is clever since he was a child. But also a bit nasty, they said. You shouldn't do those things, they said.</p>
            </blockquote>





	More valuable than gold and blood and real friendship

**Author's Note:**

> Beta-read by **janiedean**. Thanks. :)

Iago has been told that he is clever since he was a child. But also a bit nasty, they said. You shouldn't do those things, they said.  
He liked to play with other children. To play with their minds, actually. It was more fun than chasing after a stray cat, more fun than playing knights and kings. He would say a few words in one child's ear, and a few words in another's, and that was it, his work there was done. He just had to step back and enjoy the results of his work, watching pretended and friendly banters turn into fights, wooden swords leave bruises and draw blood.  
It was never his fault, because words can't do any harm. Weapons can harm, kicks and fists and bites can harm, but words cannot.  
He was clever even back then, and he knew it. He already had a silver tongue, and he knew how to use it. He could talk himself out of any situation.  
The mothers of the children he played with told him he was clever, then they told him he was nasty, but they could never prove anything. And the kids couldn't help trusting him.  
He didn't belong to a rich family - neither he belonged to a poor one, but still, he wasn't rich - and, even back then, he knew that his silver tongue was more valuable than gold and blood and real friendship.


End file.
